New Meals Delivery Service

dvdfan

Hi,

Just want to run an idea by you all to see what ye think. Thinking of investing in a delivery service of Hot meals, already run a cafe but was thinking of expanding it a bit by delivering meals. Am i wrong to think in this day and age where alot of people have hectic lifestyles but dont have the time to cook the food and end up choosing unhealthy options like fast food take-away or unedible microwave meals, that a service that would provide hot meals consisting of such a choice of meats as a steak, chicken, pork, etc served with mashed potato and veg and portion of gravy or curry if applicable, would be benificial. Would deliver up to a 3-4 mile radius which would probably take in a population of around 20,000 and probably deliver 12-4pm. This would be freshly cooked and i have the facility to produce meals quickly because i have several large baila marias that can keep the food hot so i was just wondering what ye all think, what are the pro's and cons. p.s there are alot of take-aways in this town but none deliver proper meals and none deliver before 6pm.

Meals would be approx 8.00-8.50 (11 for steak) and 2 euro delivery charge, will deliver to businesses or private addresses.

Also i dont want to invest too much starting off because i would need to get equipment and pay delivery men, so i was thinking of just sticking to a small paper advert and handing out leaflets in the town center daily, does this make sense or should i be making a bigger advertisement effort and what are your suggestions there. My opinion would be to start small and as i start making more from this advertise more. Also thinking of offering a cheaper priced meal for O.A.P's and children, small sized portions for maybe around 5.50-5.95

fintan

if you can keep the food hot and not have it go soggy with fast delivery i reckon your onto a winner.

why only 12-4pm? surely do the lunch 11 to 2 and then do the 5 to 8 dinner time?

eth0_

There's a place around the corner from me - www.suppersready.ie who do delivery of 'real' food, and they seem to be doing pretty well, it's a great idea I think, to have a takeaway that doesn't sell junk. I'd say you could do quite well otu of it.

Good luck!

SarahMc

There is a review in the Irish Independent magazine today of a similar operation in Shankhill.

dvdfan

fintan wrote:

if you can keep the food hot and not have it go soggy with fast delivery i reckon your onto a winner.

why only 12-4pm? surely do the lunch 11 to 2 and then do the 5 to 8 dinner time?

Well i would go with these hours for January and February because its slightly quiter this time of the year so we close at 4pm midweek and 5pm weekends. As the summer months come closer we would be extending the hours until 6pm and maybe further if the response is good

Cheers for the positive replies, anyone know of any good suppliers for the containers and warmers to keep the food warm while in transit

Thanks

whiskeyman

I've often seen this idea make trade mags and the occasional news paper here.
I don't remember any of them, and havent seen any lately though....a bad sign perhaps.
What does seem to be common, is a portal to order food from more established restraunts, as opposed to ust takeaway fare.
Something like http://www.restaurantexpress.ie/ or http://www.metromunch.com/m4/ (although, they have fast food too, but have a wide range).

I doubt the "home" market will provide much for you... have you tried corporate clients / event catering?

dvdfan

I already have the business in place that does pretty ok, these meals are all available to the public to walk in and sit down and eat so there wouldnt be alot of extra expenses. We dont need extra staff to manage the phone as we already have someone that looks after ordering etc and this will just be an added job for him, the only extra staff we would have to pay is a driver for 4 hours in the beginning and maybe if it picks up 6-8 hours later. The only set-up costs would be getting equipment to keep the food warm and containers to keep the food in, not going to be a huge expense so i think it may be worth a try as it wont take many meals being sold to cover the drivers wage, we would provide for home users and also deliver to businesses, catering events is something we would look into at a later stage when we get established. Thanks for the input

whiskeyman

Hi dvdfan.

Here's one of the companys.. I did a quick search for.
They were called www.realfoodathome.com

Sunday Business Post article here:
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/04/20/story98162466.asp

Good article here:
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single1757

This business used the idea of selling "meal kits" so the end-user cooked the meal themselves effortlessly.
This gives the customer the satisfaction of cooking their own meal, while have it fresh and hot.
Both .ie and .com websites are not available, and I cant find mention of it currently operating though...
This approach might be worth considering though, as you already have an established business.

dunkamania

You should look at potential corporate clients.
My company pays for dinner to be delivered for anyone working past 7.

Genghis

Sounds like a good idea. If you are asking me as a consumer, then I'd say "yeah, that's something I'd buy". A lot of people are travelling a long way to work in Dublin, so a proper evening meal is out for them. This could be a good way to have a good meal in the middle of the day.

However, I remember hearing about this sort of business in London. Someone did a survey for (I think) the Guardian where they sampled a number of companies (in London, as it is such a large commuter / sitbed / urban centre there are numerous comeptitors).

Unfortunately the outcome was very negative. Most of the food arrived in porr condition, it did not taste great and was agreed to be over-priced. It may be difficult to avoid this, despite your best intentions.

dvdfan

Our cafe also doubles as a chipper but we only open late night to catch the nightclub crowd, however one of the busy chippers in the area have closed and i now feel that it would be worth my while opening the chipper during the day which would keep the premisies open until late. Thinking about it most of the business i get from deliveries daytime would be from local businesses ordering lunch and i think the majority of my target market which would be business people or working people who work 9-6 and dont have the time or energy to cook and dont want unhealthy take away food. So the most likely time for my target market to call for a take-away meal would be after 6pm, with the opening of the chipper now at 6pm this will allow me catch more of my target market and my only extra expense would be a delivery man.

I also plan to do a deal with a local company that deliver dvd's and video's in the area. In return for us letting them use our shop to advertise their service and leave their catalogue's at the counter they will leave a leaflet about our food delivery service with every order as well as our other advertising efforts this should be helpful. I will also be delivering sandwiches, desserts, and chipper food if required because i might as well make use of the facilities but will mostly concentrate on the hot meals because they are unique unlike the chipper food which can be ordered from lots of different chippers and chinese's.

Genghis wrote:

Unfortunately the outcome was very negative. Most of the food arrived in poor condition, it did not taste great and was agreed to be over-priced. It may be difficult to avoid this, despite your best intentions.

In reply to this food is already good, will use warmer to keep food hot and get it there as quick as possible and a full meal at 8.50 and 2 euro delvery charge is a reasonable price

Elessar

Does anyone know of a place that delivers cooked food like this to Swords?

I'm getting sick of having to eat either chinese, pizza or chipper chips everytime I don't want to cook.

dvdfan

Elessar wrote:

Does anyone know of a place that delivers cooked food like this to Swords?

I'm getting sick of having to eat either chinese, pizza or chipper chips everytime I don't want to cook.

Now if i can get a couple of thousand of people who think like you to move to my town ill be sorted

steve-hosting36

www.letseatin.ie (no real website yet) is the Shankill operation, they offer Thai, Chinese, Italian and US/European food with drinks, deserts and snacks. Food is gorgeous and well priced! We love it!

Software Guru

Agree..its restaurant qualtiy ! www.letseatin.ie has really nice food. Bit of an update on their website, they now have Online Ordering in shankhill..

chump

One thing though, you'd want to make sure the portions are huuuge ... well enough to fill the belly anyway, cos I'd be fairly annoyed if I spent 10-15euro getting a meal delivered, for one, and it was the size of some of the 'meals' you get given to you in some cafes...

whizzbang

I shouldn't have read all these, now I'm starvin! :eek:

RainyDay

I wouldn't imagine there would be huge demand for take-aways at lunchtime. I'd suggest you focus on the evening market.

drdre

steve-hosting36 wrote:

www.letseatin.ie (no real website yet) is the Shankill operation, they offer Thai, Chinese, Italian and US/European food with drinks, deserts and snacks. Food is gorgeous and well priced! We love it!

Thats great to hear that, they are also opening in Blanchardstown and in 2-3 months will also have an operation in sandyford industrial estate.Theres a great selection of food.and the website is up and running now.